1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to improving the playability of golf clubs from difficult lies and more particularly to a golf club head arrangement which effectively minimizes the interference of grasses and other impediments at impact.
2. Description of Related Art
The game of golf has always included an element of accuracy. Golf courses are designed to reward accuracy and to punish, often severely, inaccuracy. A golfer who strays from the fairway or green will find punishment in the way of long grasses of varying type and other impediments which may adversely effect the chances of making contact with the golf ball on the next stroke. For example, the long grass of the rough may interfere with the golfer""s stoke by coming between the club head and the ball at impact. The effects of such interference include difficulty in predicting the distance and/or the direction of the golf shot.
One particular problem occurs when the long grass of the rough interferes with the club head just prior to impact which causes the club head to unintentionally open or close and results in a wayward shot often of little distance.
A number of techniques have been developed for golfers to improve club head contact with the ball during shots hit from difficult lies. Typically a golfer will make one or more adjustments to his normal swing so as to strike the ball as cleanly as possible thereby minimizing any interference. Golfers are taught to grip the club more tightly when playing shots from the rough and to play the ball in a rearward position in their stance so as to make a golf swing with a more pronounced, upright swing plane as that occurring in their normal golf swing. With these swing modifications the club head approaches the ball at a steep angle and avoids the grass or other impediment immediately behind the ball which would otherwise interfere with impact. As a general rule, it requires a greater amount of strength to hit a golf ball solidly from the rough than from the fairway, especially in high rough, since the extra power is needed to drive the club face through the grass. Consequently, many woman and senior golfers have difficulty advancing the ball from the rough.
As an alternative to altering the golf swing, a golfer may take advantage of a variety of golf clubs developed to aid the golfer in hitting shots from the rough. Many of these golf clubs include a ridge or other extension running along the sole of the club head which drives through the grass in a digging fashion so that better club face-ball contact can be made. Other clubs designed to improve playability from the rough include steeply lofted wood-type clubs with extra long shafts which make use of the steep loft angle and lengthened shaft to allow the golfer to dig the ball out of the rough with added power. Extremely difficult lies often leave a golfer with no choice but to advance the ball a short distance back into the fairway with a wedge. A wedge is characterized as having a short shaft and a club face with a large loft angle relative to the irons and woods which comprise the balance of the set of golf clubs. Wedges are generally used for short golf shots which require greater accuracy of distance and trajectory and are typically referred to as pitching, sand and lob wedges.
The club head of a conventional wedge includes a hosel which is substantially in line with the leading edge of the club face, although to a lesser extent wedges are known which are xe2x80x9coffsetxe2x80x9d having the leading edge of the club face rearward the hosel with respect to the target line. Rarely have club heads been designed which include forward face progression, one example being that embodied in U.S. Pat. No. 5,183,255 to Antonius. The leading edge of wedges and other clubs are typically substantially straight and perpendicular to the target line. Although some degree of curvature in the leading edge is known, it is usually only slight and not intended to improve the playability of the club head from difficult lies.
Most wedges are a part of a matching set of irons and have the same hosel and sole arrangement as the set, however specialty wedges with unique club head features are known. Specialty wedge designs have relied primarily on unique loft and lie angles to achieve novel trajectories during ball flight including flight from tight lies in long grass. In the recent past, golfers have begun to carry a number of specialty wedges designed for specific playing situations.
While currently existing specialty wedges are designed to allow the golfer to obtain higher trajectory and improved accuracy from both fairway and difficult lies, these wedges have not dramatically increased playability from the rough and remain dependent, at least in part, on the golfers ability to modify his stroke to strike the ball from the rough. There remains a great need for an improved wedge design capable of allowing a golfer to make clean contact from the rough and/or sand independent of the golfers ability or intention of modifying his swing.
The present invention provides a golf club head having a hosel, a bottom wall, a top surface, a toe, a heel and a striking surface having a periphery defined by an arcuate leading edge extending downwardly from the heel to a forwardmost point of the striking surface and extending upwardly from the forwardmost point to the toe, the periphery being further defined by an upper edge extending from the hosel to the toe across the top of the striking surface. The centerline of the hosel intersects a plane containing the striking surface at a point rearward the leading edge.
The golf club head in accordance with the present invention makes use of a leading edge and sole design together with a forward face progression arrangement uniquely designed to improve playability from difficult lies such as those found in the rough or in a hazard. This unique arrangement plows through the impediments in the hazard and imparts a wave-like action to the grass or sand immediately behind the ball effectively minimizing interference with club head-ball impact. The preferred embodiment may be characterized as combining the advantages associated with forward face progression with those accompanying an arcuate leading edge and sole design capable of effectively eliminating interfering impediments.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a golf club head capable of improving club face-ball contact for golf shots struck from difficult lies by providing a combination of club head features designed to minimize the effect of otherwise interfering grasses or sand. The club head of the present invention accomplishes this objective through the combination of forward face progression and a leading edge and sole design. Whereas the forward face progression element is designed to place the center of gravity of the club head rearward the leading edge and improve the likelihood of striking the ball without interference from the hosel, the curved leading edge element minimizes the interference of long grasses and other impediments by creating a wave-like action through the grass or sand. The sole is design to effectively eliminate a portion of the sand through which the club head must travel during a bunker shot. This combination of club head features improves playability from difficult lies by minimizing the effect of interfering grasses and other impediments which would interfere with impact.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals designate the same elements.